making bars from bars

with no bike here and completely slacking on getting Chris's sportster running, I need some sort of project to keep the few hours (read:1 hour) a day of free time busy. I had talked to both Chris and Kim about using the bends and bungs from the 70moto Gentleman's Bars and changing a few things ever since the shovel was getting finished. brought some pieces by BCM and we've slowly worked on it.

so....some heat, some patient coping, some tacking, back to coping, tacking, welding, heating, smoking, yes, a good amount of smoke was coming out of the ends of the bars, bending, heating, bending, and mounting. Kim was on heat duty while I was on the bending duty and I will fully admit that we went with the "art, not science" style of fabrication which can get interesting when bending stainless steel tubing. tip:use some science with your bends. bend it once, bend it right. whoopsie!

they are not the right style for maximum Bob's bike, but it's what we had to make sure the bars were perfectly in line with the front end. that was my biggest want for these. oh and a nice tight radius in the vertical sections of the bars....I think that they will look quite mounted up, especially after I spend some time behind the polishing wheel!!!

now, back to waiting!!!!! almost there!

70Moto Black Power Pan

I originally shot and posted this pic on August 4, 2010. It was a night at Hensley's in Carlsbad. Chris has since changed the bars on the bike. it was and still is a ruler.

Also, last night while walking the dog, my neighbor said to me, "hey, that's a nice bike you got there, I saw you kickstarting that thing, that's like old school, huh? Like some early 90's shit, right dude?" (referring to the shovel)

I said "yep, pretty much".

early 90's / late 70's....similar enough. we then started talking about dirt bikes. 2 stroke vs. 4 stroke, then the conversation turned to talking about people having strokes, and I finished it up by bringing up the band The Strokes, but he didn't realize where I was going...I was amused.

back in black

still warm from the oven. 1 day powder coating turnaround? yep. rebuilding starting tonight? yep. bike will be running by middle of next week? I won't rest until it is.


thanks Chris!

a morning with 70moto

to continue my posts that are not about motorcycles, this one is dedicated to Chris's garage. He cleaned it up recently. Added some shelves, found homes for tools, and proudly displays his fullface helmet fetish.

Chris is making some big changes to his panhead. His goals are to make the bike a bit more comfortable, be able to go more than 50 miles before filling up with gas, and having a frame with some proper cast parts. And for it to be blacker than black.

Out with the old

In with the new (old)

Castings....make all the difference

bar/riser tweakage. some custom 70moto bars will go on the ride.